Adam Turner is an award-winning Australian freelance technology journalist with a passion for gadgets and the "digital lounge room".

Netflix's UltraHD service on show at the LG stand at CES 2014 in Las Vegas.

The Consumer Electronics Show is abuzz with talk of Ultra HD TVs, but content delivery is still up in the air for Australians.

You can't walk far in the central hall of CES without stumbling across a TV vendor spruiking Ultra HD TVs. What's of more interest is how they'll get Ultra HD content into our lounge rooms. Things are looking up for US viewers, but it could be a long wait for Aussie early adopters.

Netflix head Reed Hastings got up on stage with LG and Sony to talk about plans to stream Ultra HD content directly to televisions. YouTube is also embracing Ultra HD, also known as 4K. Meanwhile Sony's Ultra HD movie download service is up to about 150 titles in the US and they're hinting at expansion plans as they ramp up cloud services to support televisions and the PlayStation 4.

In the US, Sony is offering a home Ultra HD server for downloading movies, plus you can copy across your own Ultra HD movies shot on a new Ultra HD camcorder. In Australia we're still waiting on the long-promised Ultra HD player from Sony. Meanwhile Samsung plans to introduce an Ultra HD player in Australia by the middle of the year, which will come with five movies and three docos. They're aiming to offer 20 movies by the end of the year, but they're still not sure how much they'll cost or whether you'll download them or receive them in the post.

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Right now Netflix looks like the most promising source of 4K content in the US. There are obviously tricks for accessing Netflix in Australia, but when it comes to television apps your mileage may vary – assuming you've got a fast enough broadband connection to stream Ultra HD content. On some televisions it might be as simple as changing the DNS settings to something like Unblock US, which isn't going to impact your download speeds as a VPN connection would. But these tricks won't work on every television. Samsung tells me that its Netflix app actually checks the television's serial number to see which region it's from, making it much harder for Australians to bluff their way in.

Most Australians don't have the broadband speeds to support 4K streaming, but don't expect the traditional broadcasters to come to your rescue any time soon. Ultra HD broadcasting is taking off in some countries, such as South Korea, but I wouldn't hold your breath in Australia. Our networks are backing away from Full HD broadcasting, preferring to show repeats of Gilligan's Island on the HD channels. I couldn't see them rushing to dedicate extra bandwidth and resources to Ultra HD. They screwed over Full HD early adopters by all-but abandoning HD sport, so I certainly wouldn't be relying on Australian broadcasters to lead the Ultra HD push even if they do talk of trials.

TV manufactures are making efforts to future-proof their televisions for Ultra HD broadcasting. LG is building in HEVC decoding to support South Korean Ultra HD broadcasts, which is likely to be the format used in Australia if we decide to go down the Ultra HD path. Meanwhile Samsung's $299 Evolution upgrade kits let you replace the smarts in your television without having to buy a whole new set. It's comforting to know these options are available, but I expect they'll lie idle in Australia for a long time yet.

The third Ultra HD delivery option is physical media although, at about 100GB, Ultra HD movies are too large to fit on even a Blu-ray disc. Higher capacity discs might come to the rescue and here at CES there's more talk of four-layer Blu-ray discs which could hold more than 100 GB. The Blu-ray player you own today won't play such discs but, if the manufacturers can agree on a standard, we might see compatible Blu-ray players in the next 12 months.

If you've followed the format wars of the past you'll realise this could turn into a long and painful process. No-one wants to get stuck with the next Betamax or HD-DVD player. HEVC H.265 is a strong contender for the format of choice, but Google is pushing its V9 format which has also won a lot of support from manufacturers. Right now it seems the format battle is one of the main hurdles to delivering Ultra HD physical media.

Word on the floor at CES is that 2014 is the year that Ultra HD will really take off, but for Australians it's still a game of wait and see. Are you keen on Ultra HD? How do you want to receive your Ultra HD content?

113 comments so far

Unfortunately with 3D already fading from our screens the chance of UHD being adopted here is almost zero - good luck with the Tardis.

Commenter

the Truth

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

January 09, 2014, 8:29PM

Forget Ultra-HD, or even 3D; I would like to see some worthwhile HD content on my TV!

As things stand now, Blu-Ray is the only real option for HD content, because decent internet simply isn't available in my area, and there is so little on broadcast TV.

Commenter

Robert

Location

Canberra

Date and time

January 10, 2014, 11:57AM

Not interested at all. I'm still waiting for proper 1080p television broadcasting in Australia. Wont happen. However I'm sure that when I need to get around to getting a new TV to replace my Bravia 55" 1080p TV (which wont be for a long while) then I will have no choice but to get a 4k. I'm more than happy with the quality of a good Blu-Ray movie at 1080p on a good panel. Hell even a good DVD with a good up scaling player looks fine for daily use. And as was also alluded to in the article, our current broadband infrastructure in Australia will severely limit my access to proper 4k streaming, particularly under the current governments vision of the NBN. My issue with 4k is most consumers don't need it. I cant help feeling that it is a terrible waste of time and money considering so many other real issues exist in the world. But oh well, that's tech for you. This is just one of those side shows, like 3D home televisions. Ultimately it doesn't really enhance my life measurably.

Commenter

Neat_au

Location

Sydney

Date and time

January 09, 2014, 9:05AM

The current government's plan for the NBN will severely limit your access to 4k streaming which you then go on to say most people don't need. What are you going on about. For a start the government plan will enable streaming of movies so you are not only confused but wrong. The reality is that hardly anyone needs FTTP and if people need it is going to be for business therefore the cost of connecting will be a tax deduction. Whatever happened ot user pays?

Commenter

the Truth

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

January 10, 2014, 10:01AM

@the Truth

Hi there - no I was addressing points raised in the actual original article. In other words - we have a technology aimed at consumers which most consumers will not be able to fully take advantage of because of lack of content and potential infrastructure limitations for example.

I then say that [in my opinion] consumers don't really need this anyway. The point here is that there is a disconnect between technology, infrastructure and content and consumer needs which results in little real advantage to the consumer regardless of how you look at it. In fact given the lack of content, your SD broadcasting is going to look worse.

And to address your suggestion (slightly off topic) for those of us who do use HD content streaming services regularly, the current governments iteration of the NBN offers virtually nothing to improve this service. It struggles now at times to deliver full HD content, and I am on the fastest possible consumer cable plan with Telstra. It would be a virtual disaster with 4K content which can be up to 100Gb for one movie.

Commenter

Neat_au

Location

Sydney

Date and time

January 10, 2014, 11:46AM

@ "the Truth": I think you are confusing individual user needs with the capacity of the delivery mechanism.

Very few people "need" Ultra-HD/4K video streaming, but that is not an argument against the network infrastructure which would make it possible, as that is only one of many uses of a broadband network.

Equally, most domestic premises don't need enough water to fill a pool while running four showers and a washing machine, but that isn't an argument for smaller pipes in the street!

Simply put, spending $30 to $60 billion on FTTN to give everyone access to the equivalent of ADSL2, which most people have access to already, is ridiculous. Spending around the same amount (or not much more) to make FTTP available to all makes far more sense.

NB: the "user pays" principle still applies; those who don't want high speed connections can go on the lowest plans (at lower cost), while those who want it can have up to 1Gbps by paying more.

Netflix is estimating 4K will need 15.6 megabits per second. The Liberal's plan is a minimum of 25 Mbps and upwards to 100+ megabits. So Tony Abbott won't ruin your movie watching day if his copper network is 2nd rate rubbish.

Commenter

James

Date and time

January 10, 2014, 4:37PM

Robert - the point is that the Labor plan will end up costing at least twice the coalition option. If I fill my pool I pay for the water and the pipes are already there but because I have a pool I don't ask the taxpayer to put in better pipes and subsidise my pool. I hope you get it because my point is ridiculously simple and the belief that Labor's plan won't cost more than the coalition option is even more ridiculous.

Commenter

the Truth

Location

Melbourne

Date and time

January 10, 2014, 9:57PM

Robert - one more thing - what is the population of the US? What is the population of the other countries listed and their geographical areas? South Korea is making a major investment in wireless too. The reality is that with a population of 23 M and being the largest island in the world and how the population is so spread out their is not economic imperative or business case that justifies the ridiculous NBN. It is as real as Hawke's pledge of no child living in poverty - just another Labor wank.